LukeJavan8
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 06/23/08
Posts: 7141
Loc: Land of the Flat Water

Letter to the Times,London, Oct. 14, 1939:

Sir,

If ordinary English usage counts for anything, an evacuee is a person who has been evacued, whatever that may be, as a trustee is one who has been trusted; for 'evacuee' cannot be thought of as a feminine French form, as 'employee' is by some.

Where are we going to stop if 'evacuee' is accepted as good English? Is a terrible time coming in which a woman, much dominated by her husband, will be called a dominee? Will she often be made a humiliee by his rough behavior and sometimes prostree with grief after an unsought quarrel?

Must sensitive people suffer the mutilation of their language until they die and are ready to become cremees?

Well, despite Mr Newtons protestations, (he, of course is a protestee)evacuee became the accepted word for someone who had been "evacuated." The alternative would have been, "evacuatee," I suppose, which is ugly and difficult to say. The English have always, I think, modified words to fit easy speech - and a good thing too.

Must sensitive people suffer the mutilation of their language until they die and are ready to become cremees?

Sensitive people should learn some historical linguistics which ought to prepare them for the real world of language. The A-H dictionary does not even have a usage note where such peeves go; M-W collegiate cites 1918 as its entry into the language. (Looking at its timeline in Google's NGram, shows that 1939, that annus mirabilis) was indeed when it took off. Wonder what FHJ Newton was doing then? Being demobbed and getting ready to bash heads in the General Strike.

My personal favorite of the -ee words is alienee 'one to whom ownership of property has been transferred'.

In the sense of 'a (female) person who has been expelled or evacuated' from the verb évacuer. The French dictionary I consulted says it's a military term and that it's been around since at least the late 17th century. It seems possible that the French military term predates the English one.

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